Portland lovers and relocaters help
 

We are doing it! Hubby and I will be moving to Portland in the next month! How did you make the move easy? Did you rent for awhile or buy quickly? We checked out neighborhoods last Oct and will be looking near the city, SE most likely (Ladds Add, Buckman, Sellwood maybe) or possibly NE (Laurelhurst, Irvington...). Any recs for apartments in these areas (we may not be able to buy right away)? Are month to month leases common? In Chicago most leases start May or Oct 1-kinda odd. Can't wait to have our first Portland summer and meet more cool Oregonians!
Thanks for all your help on past trips!

Faaaabulous!!!
Our move was from Florida to Portland, by car with a large pup. We made that part easy by not giving ourselves a limit on how long it would take and by stopping whenever we felt like it and by taking only music that we both liked :D

We are renting for the first year.
Prices are changing by the day, real estate is really crazy here right now.
And you never know if once you are here, you will find a new neighborhood that you will fall in love with..never buy a house in a new town til you know you love it.

I love Laurelhurst! We take Pup to the Laurelhurst Park 2-3 times a week..we were there Friday and I really wanted to live in one of the big houses by the Park..it is a charming area, but it all depends on what you need in your neighborhood.
We wanted City life. We are in the Pearl District, smack dab in the middle of City Life :)
How big an apt ? Where?
Month to Month is available in some..also 6 month leases..

Realtors here don't help with rentals, you have to do it yourself..we came for 10 days and found our apt on the 4th day nd we had a handicap ( large pup)..
I will get my apt rental list and post it next :D
Happy for you, I ((L)) Portland LOL

Month to month leases are common except for the big corporate property managers, the kind you would find in For Rent magazine, but I don't think you'll find many of those types of apartments in the areas you mention. It sounds to me like you would be best renting a duplex or a whole house instead of an apartment. The best place to look might be Craigslist or in the want-ads (Oregonlive.com, WWeek.com, etc.) Most of Laurelhurst and Ladd's Addition is houses anyway so that would be your only real choice. There are a few apartments in Irvington but I don't think they are very nice. There's a modern apartment building right at Lloyd Center and is probably listed in For Rent (Lloyd Apartments?). That would put you pretty close to Irvington.

I live in a townhouse complex in NE and some of them are rentals, and one unit may be going up for rent this month. If you are interested, it's in NE just across the street from the Irvington border, it would be a 2BR-2BA modern townhome with a fireplace and garage. If you are interested, go to my website www.portlandbridges.com and contact me that way. I know the owner and will see what his plans are for renting it out.

But you might as well do what Scarlett is doing and rent in the Pearl or downtown at first instead of the areas where you think you might want to buy. That way you can kind of get to know the city of Portland a little bit before moving slightly out of downtown into one of the neighborhoods.

Andrew

Hi Andrew!!
eroz,
I have no idea what sort of rent you are thinking of, but
http://www.museum-place.com/
is wonderful..

http://tinyurl.com/zfzwl
We almost took the Penthouse in this building, a beautiful building, nice apts but we felt it was a bit on the outskirts of the area we really wanted to be in.

And look at thelouisa.com

Welcome to the area! I can't help with rentals at all, but Andrew and Scarlett are great sources for that, and I would trust them:)

We live in a SW suburb and love it. I was born and raised in OR, but my husband was career military so we were away for a while. When we came back we already knew exactly where we wanted to be, so there really was no decision to be had...just which house, lol! I hope your move is as easy:)

Thanks you all for the great info! Scarlett, many of your posts over the last year have been super helpful.

I'll be in Burlington Tower in the Pearl for my month of corporate housing so that will give me time to look around for housing. DH will come in April to help look, if we find an amazing house we'll buy it while we have the 2 incomes (he'll have to find a new gig once he sells the chicago condo and moves). Otherwise we'll find something cool to rent.
Andrew, I will email via the website on the townhouse for rent. THank you!
We spent a few days with a realtor and wiht friends in October and would probably rent outside of the Pearl in one of the neighborhoods, it would also be cheaper since I've heard Pearl prices are really high.
I like craigslist and will check out the other sites recommended.
So Excited to get going now that we've made the decision!! Thanks!

I like the area of roughly Hawthorne to Powell, 20th to 50th, for a mix of interesting shopping and restaurants + necessary stuff like groceries and Fred Meyer.

I used to live in the Hawthorne area and before I decided to buy a place a few years ago, I never would have considered NE Portland, where I live now. But once I started looking at places there, I got to appreciate the area more. NE has a different feel from SE, but NE also has a nice mix of restaurants and shops. It's also a bit cheaper (in parts) than the now-pricey Hawthorne District (I got a lot more house for the money in NE than I would have in SE), yet you are still close to downtown; I can walk to the MAX (free to downtown) in under 15 minutes or even across the river to the Pearl district in only 25 minutes. At the same time, freeway access is much better here than Hawthorne - having to drive 10-15 minutes just to get to a freeway used to bug me. Now I can get on I-405 in about three minutes.

NE is still considered "dangerous" by some who remember the terrible drug crime that plagued the area 10-20 years ago, but NE has cleaned up dramatically since then. Some of Portland's most upper-middle class neighborhoods are in NE also. And then there's North Portland, which has been up and coming for years - still a bit grungier than the rest of town but also coming along and seeing housing prices skyrocket, too.

Andrew

We looked at the Burlington! We were unable to rent there because of dog size restrictions :)

So you will be in the heart of things, my favorite restaurant of the moment is almost across the street from you (Fenouil) and the wonderful Japanese place is about a block down from you (Shin Ju) , Jamison Park is across the street from you..
That is a great spot to be while looking.
I will recommend my new favorite neighborhood outside of NW Portland and that is Laurelhurst. We go there at least twice a week with Pup..they have a fabulous park..
The houses are wonderful, so much character and charm and the area is so pretty..
Otherwise, I am seeing really ratty houses here in the NW, in need of a lot of renovating, with asking prices in the high 400k's and something with a little renovating is around 5-600k..Of course, those are the neighborhoods I want to be in the most lol.
Good luck and email me if you wish..scarlettO1athotmail.

I see that I am repeating myself LOL I like Laurelhurst!

I like Laurelhurst too!
and as for those "transitional neighborhoods", that's pretty much what we live in here in CHicago. We are all for some diversity. :)
Scarlett, I agree a lot of the housing seems older. It's also small. Hubby is 6'4" and just can't stand up in the bungalows with dormers on the 2nd floor (we call them 1 and 1/2 stories but our Portland friends didn't know what we were talking about). We like the old PDX style and of course those cost more. Just ready to go, 2 more wks and I"ll check out those restaurant suggestions!
Also, if you know anyone in mktg/rep sales, insurance or esp. working at Standard Insurance downtown let me know (find hubby a new job!).
Love you guys!